Wind power is used for a number of purposes, including the operation of pumps and other mechanical devices and the generation of electricity. One of the more common types of wind power generators is a conventional windmill, wherein a blade or series of blades or the like rotate in a vertical plane about a horizontal axis. A problem with this type of drive mechanism is that the speed of a windmill blade increases with the speed of the wind applied to the blade. Most electrical generators operate most efficiently at a given rotational speed. Thus, such systems require a governor or other means to control the operating speed of the generator driven by the windmill. Some windmills include windmill blades where the pitch can be altered to vary the driving force of the wind.
Wind power also can be generated by a horizontal windmill, where wind catching devices rotate in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis. In a horizontal windmill, the wind catching devices are moving in a direction counter to the direction of the wind for one half of their rotational cycle, so the driving force of such a windmill is determined by the difference between the force generated on the wind catchers moving in the direction of wind flow and the wind catchers moving against the direction of wind flow. A number of challenges relating to cost and effectiveness of horizontal wind catchers have led to a number of different windmill constructions.
An object of the present invention is to provide a wind generator for efficiently developing electrical power from a wide range of available wind sources.